Puerto Rico Hurricane Irma and Maria Relief
January 2018 – March 2020
All Hands and Hearts responded to the two devastating hurricanes that hit Puerto Rico in September of 2017. The disasters caused widespread destruction, most notably in the municipalities of Yabucoa, Barranquitas and Toa Baja. Our teams provided immediate and long-term relief and after two and a half years wrapped up operations in March 2020.
Our Work
Our dedicated teams of staff and volunteers worked tirelessly on home build activities and ensured families were provided with water-proof, hurricane-resistant roofs to weather future storms; our senior technical advisor played a fundamental role in developing best practices in the field and enabled us to expand our scope of work to include repairing corrugated galvanized iron roofs, as well as creating Standard Operating Procedures for concrete roofing. Outside our construction work, we helped restore community centers, parks, and baseball fields to restore a sense of normalcy to the surrounding communities.
Disaster Profile
In September 2017, Hurricane Irma landed in Puerto Rico with the strongest winds the island has ever experienced. Not long after, Hurricane Maria’s ferocious 155 mph winds struck the island, leaving a trail of destruction and exacerbating Irma’s impacts. Maria first made landfall over the municipality of Yabucoa, impacting more than 37,000 residents; this area bore the strongest brunt of the storm. The island’s interior, the mountain municipality of Barranquitas, was also devastated by the storm and became nearly inaccessible for weeks due to landslides. Moreover, the city of Toa Baja suffered flooding from the hurricane, in addition to the subsequent release of dams, resulting in floodwaters over 10 feet high.
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